Jakow Trachtenberg: the engineer who created the Trachtenberg method.
Jakow Trachtenberg (1888–1951) was an engineer from Odessa who developed a system of rules for calculating in your head. His name also appears as Jakov, Yakov or Jacob Trachtenberg. His life took him from Russia to Berlin, Vienna, Yugoslavia and finally Zurich, where he taught the method that now carries his name.
Quick facts
17 June 1888 in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire.
An engineer, graduating with distinction from the Mining Institute in Saint Petersburg.
The Trachtenberg speed system of basic mathematics.
26 October 1951 in Zurich, Switzerland.
An engineer in Saint Petersburg
After his studies, Trachtenberg became chief engineer at the Obukhov Works in Saint Petersburg, a large industrial plant. He was also known as a committed pacifist. After the October Revolution of 1917 he left Russia and settled in Berlin.
Berlin and Vienna
In Berlin he wrote about Russian industry, contributed articles to a pacifist journal and published a Russian language textbook that went through several editions. In 1930 he married Alice Bredow, a singer and pianist.
After the Nazis came to power, the couple moved to Vienna in 1934. They were safe there only until Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938.
Imprisonment and the origin of the method
By his own account, Trachtenberg was forced to move on to Yugoslavia in 1940. He was arrested in Split in 1944 and faced deportation, but escaped with help and reached Switzerland on 25 April 1945.
The best-known part of his story is how the method began. The preface to his system says he worked out the rules while held in Gestapo prisons, without paper or anything to write with, so every step had to be carried in his head. Accounts differ on the details of his imprisonment, so treat the exact circumstances with some caution. The design of the method fits the story, though: each rule turns a calculation into small steps you can hold in memory.
Zurich and the published system
In Switzerland, Trachtenberg refined his rules and founded an institute in Zurich to teach them. He died in Zurich in 1951. His system later reached a wide audience through the adaptation by Ann Cutler and Rudolph McShane, published in English as The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics. Our book guide explains how to identify an edition.
What his story means for learners
Trachtenberg designed his rules to work with as little memorised material as possible: instead of recalling a large multiplication table, you follow a short instruction for each digit. That is still the best way to approach the method. Start with the ×11 rule, read how the system works, and add one rule at a time.
Sources: Jakow Trachtenberg, German Wikipedia · Bloomsbury’s publisher listing.